The invention concerns a hand-guided vibration tamper, which is driven by a motor laterally cantilevered on the tamper head, wherein the motor is covered below and laterally by guard plates.
It is usual with such vibration tampers to position the drive motor in back beneath the guide fork and to protect it by side and/or floor plates from mechanical effects from the outside. The impetus for these protective measures is, first of all, the desire to use the tamper even in narrow pits, where laterally adjacent earth could damage the motor or its component parts. Moreover, a tamper can tip over from its standing position, or it must be transported lying on a loading bed, and in these two cases there likewise exists the danger of damage.
Underlying the present invention is the objective of amplifying the protection of the motor and optionally its component parts. Here, the costs and the weight of these protective measures should not accumulate unfavorably.
This objective is accomplished in accordance with the invention in that lower (underside) and lateral guard plates are connected with a housing and in that the lower guard plate, near its free end, is secured on an air circulation hood of the motor and/or on the motor itself.
By connection of the guard plate and securing on the motor or on the air circulation hood, there results a substantially more stable protection of the motor and its component parts than with previously known constructions. Here, the guard plates themselves need not be constructed more massively than previously, so that the weight and the cost expenditure of the tamper do not rise owing to the measures of the invention.
The connection of the lateral guard plate with the lower guard plate can be realized by one-piece construction of all guard plates. Generally, however, it is more advantageous to work with separate parts, which are either connected form-locking with one another by hooking, or are screwed together. In this way, it is easier, for example, to possibly remove only one guard plate, in order to clean or repair an attached part of the motor situated behind it.
It is especially advantageous if the lower guard plate which, by being fastened on the motor and/or on the air circulation hood, functions almost as a carrier for the two lateral guard plates, is as thick-walled aluminum plates. Its load carrying capacity is thereby substantially increased without the weight increasing in comparison with a steel plate.
Moreover, it is recommended in this connection that the lower guard plate be contoured once or more, especially bilaterally, preferably bent up. Its bending strength is thereby significantly increased.
A further refinement of the invention consists in not allowing the two lateral guard plates to run out freely on their upper edges, but rather to connect them with a common upper covering of the motor. In this way, there results not only a better bracing of the lateral guard plates, but in addition also a protection of the motor against contamination, especially if the upper covering is, in contrast to the lateral guard plates, not perforated, but is substantially closed.
Finally it is recommended that at least one of the side plates extend up to about the level of the carburetor or the muffler of the motor. In this way, these component parts are also reliably protected against outside influences. In addition, the actuation elements for the carburetor can also be moved behind a suitably lengthened side plate, so that they are not deformed by outside effects.